Show notes
Hello everyone and thank you for joining me for this month-end episode on goals. I hope you are enjoying the holidays and have a safe and happy New Year. The end of November and December were very active. I was surprised at how busy I was with meetings right up to the weekend before Christmas. That is unusual but a good sign that you all are ready to create some big things in 2019. The Create and Achieve Goals that Are Worthy of You workshop was so much fun and the feedback was incredibly helpful. What was clear was that we needed more time - duly noted! I also attended and conducted round tables at The Massachusetts Conference for Women. With over 12,000 people in attendance that day it made for a high energy event. As someone put it, "It was overwhelming in all the good ways." What was really gratifying for me was, as a speaker, I was invited to have my books sold in the bookstore and they sold out. I can't tell you how amazed and delighted I was. Many things validated for me that I was with my people. Not just women, but go-getting women who are eager to participate fully in their growth and development. Now I'm spending some time unplugged with my family and friends. I'm spending some time resting and finalizing my goals for next year and I'll share more about that in the next episode which will be releasing in a couple weeks. For now, let's get caught up on how my 2018 goals landed. To catch up anyone who is new to the Women Taking the Lead podcast, last December I did a series of episodes to walk everyone through my goal setting process and I used myself as an example to take you through all the steps. I promised during that time that I would keep you updated on my progress toward my goals in the hope that it would be helpful for you as you work toward accomplishing your goals. This episode is the progress report on my goals through December. During the Goal setting series I identified four focus areas that were important to me this year and each area has a specific goal assigned to it. Focus area #1 Increase profitability in my business Goal: have a net income (earnings minus expenses) of $80,000 minimum this year. Because I was struggling a little bit with this goal I also created 4 sub-goals in June. These sub-goals are, by year end: Have had 12 new Executive Leadership Coaching clients. This is coaching that focuses on leaders within organizations to help them with their performance as well as happiness and fulfillment at work. I had a total of 8 clients who fell into this category and 3 more clients signed on before the end of the year. While I am one client shy of this goal I still feel successful in this area because of the progress I made in such a short time. Do 10 corporate workshops. I have done 5 this year with one pushed out to January. I am four short of my goal of doing 10 and I'll be giving this area of my business more love in 2019. Promote the DIY products that are on the Women Taking the Lead website. This category has not gotten much movement and I mentioned last month that I may have to hire a marketing person to help with this. Do two more group programs by the end of the year. The virtual program was a non-starter but as I mentioned earlier my goals workshop, Create and Achieve Goals that are Worthy of You was a success and I'll be looking forward to doing more local workshops in 2019. November's Profit and Loss report showed a net profit of $1822.98. I did not meet the average $6800 net profit I'm was looking for each month this year and I've been reflecting on this and actively talking to coach colleagues of mine about this concern. There were some things missing in the attainment of this goal but it was not a lack of effort or activity that was the problem. I worked HARD to achieve this goal and applied many strategies that got some traction, but not enough. There were 3 things missing that got in the way of my achieving this goal. I was working too hard and not asking for help. Some expert support would have been very helpful, especially when it comes to the marketing of my business. I focused more on what I could do and not enough on who I was being. Because of some tight deadlines I became focused on getting things done and out rather than taking a step back to get into an experience of being of service and support. This definitely impacted how I was marketing my products and services. Lastly, and this was an interesting insight, although I know what I do and provide is incredibly valuable, I'm not always present to it when I talk to others or as I'm creating my marketing collateral. One of my mastermind members is often pointing out I don't get detailed enough about the benefits of my services and as we got deeper into the conversation I got really uncomfortable thinking about changing this mentality and state of being. This definitely needs to change in the New Year. Focus area #2 Build more strength and endurance Goal: do 1000 Spartan-regulation burpees in good form within one workout by the end of October. Separately, do an unassisted pull-up before the end of this year. I accomplished my goal to do 1000 chest-to-ground burpees back in October but I have yet to do the unassisted pull-up. Although I have continued to do pull-us with a band as a part of my workout I was not driven to accomplish this goal by year-end. I did not have the same drive and passion for the pull-up that I had for the burpees. This tells me that this goal was chosen more for my ego than to be in alignment with living the life I want to live. I'll continue to incorporate pull-ups in my weekly routine but I'm likely going to let the task of doing the unassisted pull-up go. Who knows, this may come back sometime in the future and if I happen to hit the goal in the course of getting more fit, I will let you know. Focus are #3 Romantic Partnership Goal: Be in a committed monogamous relationship with a man. Although I did not accomplish this goal this year, working toward this goal definitely got me out of my comfort zone and caused a lot of growth for me. I am much more aware of what I am looking for in a partner at this stage in my life and just recently I had a huge "ah-ha" seeing myself falling into a now-familiar pattern of settling for something casual, hoping that something will change in the near future. It never does. Note to self: If they are not in, I'm out! As my sister reminds me, "stay open, stay available, stay vulnerable. There is someone out there for you." I believe that, and that it's only a matter of time and as hard as it can be to remain open, available and vulnerable, that's what I'm going to do. I'm going to focus on being me and having fun. That's actually what my focus for 2019 is going to be. Being me and having fun with everything I do. Focus area #4 Live Events Goal: Do a live workshop in the 4th quarter of this year. Success! I checked this goal off this month and am considering some smaller workshops in the future. Quick Update on my Mom My Mom is doing much better now that the chemo is working its way out of her body. She is getting her strength and appetite back. She will be having Lasik surgery on both eyes and once she is healed from that her radiation treatments will begin. Oy! As always I hope this update was of value to you and here's to your success! Thank You to Our Sponsors! Zebralove Web Solutions: Your website tells a story about your business! At Zebralove Web Solutions, Milly and her team are going to make sure your website tells the story you want your customers to hear. Connect with Milly at zebralovewebsolutions.com to create the impression you want to make! Resources Create Goals that are Worthy of you: If you are done with either pursuing vanilla goals, suffering through the struggle of goals that are not aligned with your strengths, or dealing with heartbreak of an unattainable goal this online mini-course is for you! Private Facebook Community: Chat, share and collaborate with other women listening to the podcast! Accomplished: How to Go from Dreaming to Doing: A simple, step by step system that gives you the foundation and structure to take your goals and make them happen.